‘Game Of Thrones’ Scribe Bryan Cogman Takes On ‘Magic The Gathering’ For Fox

EXCLUSIVE: It was inevitable that the writers and directors of HBO’s staggeringly good Game Of Thrones would begin taking over the fantasy realm in features. 20th Century Fox has set Bryan Cogman, a producer, story editor and writer on the HBO drama, to script a potential franchise movie out of the fantasy card game Magic The Gathering. It will be produced by Hasbro and Fox-based producer Simon Kinberg.

Fox acquired the rights last January on Magic The Gathering, a game that was hatched in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. It became a raging geek success and hatched a collectible-trading-card-game movement. There are creatures, wizards and magic spells and players use all of them to defeat each other. Hasbro bought the company in 1999. When they have time, the GOT guys are getting more and more feature jobs; Alan Taylor directed Thor 2 and is now helming the first in the Terminator trilogy. Cogman’s repped by UTA and Management 360.

17 Comments

Bryan is wildly talented and an all-around great person. Richly deserved.

HowardB • on Jun 12, 2014 4:28 pm

I wondered when Hollywood would finally get around to this one.

checkmate • on Jun 12, 2014 4:28 pm

and now about that fan base in their 40’s who aren’t going to see this movie…

Mark • on Jun 12, 2014 4:28 pm

The budgetary requirements for a major fantasy blockbuster like ‘Magic: The Gathering’ will be heavily outweighed by potential earnings.

Warcraft is a perfect example, World of Warcraft is the highest grossing game of all time (surpassing $10billion) Blizzard have previously expressed that it is happy to spend over $200million on a Warcraft movie as a marketing expense (that’s how huge this game is/was).
Despite this the movie has been locked in development since 2006 and currently looks like it’s being released in 2016 (which may be pushed back by then).

Moral of this story is just because something is successful doesn’t mean it will translate to the screen, I hope that I am wrong and this project goes smoothly but history isn’t on it’s side.

Joe • on Jun 12, 2014 4:28 pm

Warcraft has been shot and is currently in post-production and will likely keep its 2016 release. It was originally going to release in December 2015, but moved when Star Wars jumped on its release date. No idea if it will be any good, but I’m sure there will be an audience for it and possibly Magic the Gathering too if done well.

LymD • on Jun 12, 2014 4:28 pm

I hope this doesn’t interfere with GOT. He’s the best writer on the show.

whatahack • on Jun 12, 2014 4:28 pm

lmao that’s a good joke

Roger • on Jun 12, 2014 4:28 pm

I hope half of the movie has the wizards constantly shuffling cards, getting mana screwed, flooded, or having their spells countered by the DCI.

Michael • on Jun 12, 2014 4:28 pm

Looks like he worked on seasons 2 and 3 of GoT…. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for MtG.

spacechampion • on Jun 12, 2014 4:28 pm

Looks like he worked on seasons 2 and 3 of GoT…. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for MtG.

Actually he’s worked on every season of GOT. First season he wrote “Cripples, Basterds, and Broken Things” where Sam joins the Night Watch. 2nd season he wrote “What Is Dead May Never Die” where Theon choose Balon over Robb, 3rd “Kissed By Fire” with the Brienne / Jaime bath scene, and 4th he wrote two, “Oathkeeper” and “The Laws of Gods and Men” which was Tyrion’s trial.

Anonymous • on Jun 12, 2014 4:28 pm

Wouldnt George RR Martin be the best writer on the show?

Reality Check • on Jun 12, 2014 4:28 pm

Congrats to a talented writer for scoring a nice paycheck penning a script for a film that will never get made.

The great thing about this, unlike many other game movies is there are libraries of artwork and story lines to create this movie from. There are even comics so it’s really a matter of expanding on what already exists. Also the fact that Hasbro owns MTG and has a very good history of creating very good movies/TV shows from their products should increase the chances of this being a high quality film.

Bailey Bradly • on Jun 12, 2014 4:28 pm

Bryan is a multi-talented writer. He is going to take this one and hit it out of the park.
Casting suggestion ; Meredith Eaton! She’s next up at bat after Dinklage. She has the chops !

Excited for this one.

whatahack • on Jun 12, 2014 4:28 pm

What is he going to throw around a bunch of fetuses there as well and call it good. geezz /facepalm